The present invention relates to a miter saw, and more particularly, to such a miter saw capable of performing tilt cutting in which a side surface of the circular saw blade extends obliquely relative to an upper surface of a base section.
In a conventional table top circular saw, a workpiece such as a wood block is mounted on a base section, and the workpiece is cut by a circular saw unit vertically movable above the base section. If the workpiece is to be cut obliquely relative to a vertical plane, posture of the workpiece on the base section must be changed. Thus, workability may be lowered.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-254817 discloses a miter saw including a base section, a support section, and a circular saw unit. The base section includes a base and a turntable mounted on the base and rotatable about its axis. A workpiece is mounted on the turntable. The support section upwardly extends from the base section and is laterally tiltable. The circular saw unit is positioned above the base section and is pivotally movably supported to the support section. The circular saw unit includes a circular saw blade and a motor for rotating the blade. Since the support section is pivotally movable in the lateral direction, the circular saw blade is laterally tiltable. Thus, an angle defined between a side surface of the circular saw blade and an upper surface of the base section can be changed.
In order to cut the workpiece at a desired tilting angle, a protractor must be provided at a pivot axis position so as to recognize the relative position between the base section and the circular saw unit. In this case, the tilting position is adjusted by observing a scale of the protractor. As a result, inevitable large error results due to the visual observation. It would be extremely difficult to accurately provide the tilting angle at the rate of 0.1 degree.
Further, the circular saw unit may be tiltingly moved by its own weight because of the tiltable arrangement of the circular saw unit. Therefore, in order to set the circular saw unit at a desired tilting angle, the tilting angle of the circular saw unit must be set to a desired scale angle while holding the circular saw unit with user's hand against the own weight. Then, the tilting angle must be fixed. This procedure requires a skill and a labor for accurate positioning.